Harikrishna, the former World under-10 champion, was surprised by Tamil Nadu's TV Karthikeyan while Swati was stunned by Mansi Dadarkar of Maharashtra.

Eight players including MR Venkatesh (TN), Karthikeyan and Beenish Bhatia (AP) were in joint lead with two points each in the boys section while nine girls including IWM Nisha Mohota (West Bengal), Koneru Humpi (AP), Aarthi Ramaswamy and JE Kavitha (both TN) were in joint lead after their second straight victories.

On the top board, Swati adopted the Sicilian defence and allowed herself to fall into a complicated trap where she won a rook for bishop. But she failed to emerge unscathed as Mansi won in 23 moves.

Nisha Mohota beat PL Sivakami (TN) in an Alekhine defence game, gaining a good positionafter 21 moves to force her opponent to resign after 34 moves. Asian sub-junior girls champion Aarthi Ramaswamy posted a convincing 22-move win over N Sandhya (Kerala) in a Sicilian defence.

Among boys, Sundararajan Kidambi (TN) accepted the King's gambit to score a full point against current U-14 national champion Valay Parikh of Gujarat. Kidambi controlled the centre and placed his pieces in active squares. Parikh failed to put up effective resistance against kingside pressure and surrendered after 39 moves.

P Mahesh Chandran (TN) beat Pramod (Karnataka) in 33 moves of a Sicilian defence and RR Laxman (TN) was held to a draw by D Ravishankar (Mah) while S Satyapragyan (Orissa) gained a full point over Arjun Oberoi (Mah).

NATIONAL U-18 CHESS RESULTS (2ND ROUND)

Boys: MR Venkatesh (TN) 2 bt Praharsh KP (Ker) 1; TV Karthikeyan (TN) 2 bt P Harikrishna (AP) 1; Beenish Bhatia (AP) 2 bt Kamble VR (Mah) 1; S Roy Chowdhury (WB) 1.5 bt Himanshu Sharma (Har) 1.5; Bharat Gupta (Raj) 2 bt PR Menon(Ker) 1; PS Mokal (Mah) 2 bt Nirmal EP (Ker) 1; RS Kashelkar (Mah) 2 bt DM Modi (Guj) 1; Manish Kumar (Bih) 2 bt S Rishipal Singh (AP) 1; CJ Arvind (TN) 2 bt Saurab Soni (MP) 1; Akashdeep (Har) 1 drew with Yashraj Aidasani (Mah) 1; A Srivastava (Raj) 1.5 bt IS Singh (Mani) 0.5.

Girls: Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 2 bt Swati Ghate (Mah) 1; K Humpy (AP) 2 bt B Srutha Keerthi 1; Nisha Mohota (WB) 2 bt PL Sivakami (TN) 1; Arthie Ramaswamy (TN) 2 bt Sandhya N (Ker) 1; Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 1.5 drew with Nivedita RS (Mah) 1.5; MR Sangeta (TN) 2 bt AS Mokal (Mah) 1; JE Kavitha (TN) 2 bt K Girija (Raj) 1; Y Prathiba (TN) 2 bt Prajeesha K (Ker) 1; ES Karavade (Mah) 2 bt Preethi K (TN) 1; Vaidehi Dave (Guj) 1 bt B Shantha (TN) 1